ANAHEIM, Calif. — Having left-hander Garrett Crochet and right-hander Michael Kopech at his disposal for more than just one-inning stints out of the bullpen is just another aspect of the White Sox relief corps for Tony La Russa to love.
Never mind that the Sox’ first two losses of the season Thursday and Saturday were on the bullpen’s backs. In the first one, an error by Nick Madrigal played a big part. And in the second one, the Sox are chalking it up to a bad night at the office for Evan Marshall, who has been very good the last two seasons.
Confidence is not wavering. Not three games into the season.
“Confidence, if it’s a true confidence, I don’t think will ever waver,” Crochet said. “That’s what our bullpen possesses. Everybody will have a bad day now and again. It’s something you have to accept when you play baseball. I would say the confidence in the bullpen is still there for everybody, 100 percent.”
The Sox pen entered the season touted as perhaps the best in the American League, with 2020 Reliever of the Year Liam Hendriks added in the offseason to close games. Crochet and Kopech possess just two of the power arms capable of triple digit velocity, and La Russa has already called on each for multi-inning relief. Kopech pitched two-plus scoreless innings with three strikeouts Friday and La Russa said “we were able to win” because of it.
Protecting a 3-2 lead, Crochet threw 2 1/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts Saturday right before Marshall was tagged for three runs in the eighth.
“Pretty much anybody in our pen at this point could go one or two innings, go out there and turn over the lineup,” Crochet said. “But definitely it’s nice to be looked to in that role. Being trusted to help save the pen.”
It was Kopech’s first game since late 2018 because of Tommy John surgery and opting out last year. Crochet, drafted 10 months ago, has fast-tracked it to the majors. It’s still kind of new and he admitted “my command was nervy at the beginning.”
“But I was a lot more comfortable after I got that first part out of the way.”
Crochet, who walked away from his final appearance of 2020 with a forearm strain in Game 3 of the Wild Card series, turned heads with 100-plus mph velocity. He didn’t touch triple digits during spring training, and topped out at 98.9 Saturday,
“It is coming,” assistant pitching coach Curt Hasler said. “His velocity has been slowly ticking up during the spring. He was gaining strength — he had the issue at the end of the year — going through a program with our training staff and that program didn’t deviate. He’s adding strength.
“The lights will go on and you’ll see a little more. It’s increasing, and his strength is increasing and he’s on the right track.”
The 21-year-old Crochet’s multidimensional responsibilities go beyond multi-innings work. He has been carting a large yellow backpack to the bullpen before games as the bullpen’s snack guy.
“That’s the snack bag,” he said. “It’s shaped like Spongebob. I’m just in charge of snacks.
“Snickers, Twix, Starburst, Skittles. The whole nine. Fruity, chocolate, you name it.
“I wouldn’t say I rose to the role. I would say I arrived at that point. But it’s nice to be in charge of something.”
The starry cast of Aaron Sorkin’s 1960s courtroom drama “The Trial of the Chicago 7” took the top prize Sunday at a virtual Screen Actors Guild Awards where actors of color, for the first time, swept the individual film awards.
The 27th SAG Awards, presented by the Hollywood actors’ guild SAG-Aftra, were a muted affair — and not just because the ceremony was virtual, without a red carpet and condensed to a Zoom-heavy, one-hour broadcast on TBS and TNT. The perceived Academy Awards frontrunner — Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” — wasn’t nominated for best ensemble, making this year’s postponed SAG Awards less of an Oscar preview than it is most years.
Still, the win for “The Trial of the Chicago 7” marked the first time a film from any streaming service won the guild’s ensemble award. Written and directed by Sorkin, “The Trial of the Chicago 7” had been set for theatrical release by Paramount Pictures before the pandemic hit, leading to its sale to Netflix. The streamer is still after its first best-picture win at the Oscars.
Frank Langella, who plays the judge who presided over the 1969 prosecution of activists arrested during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, drew parallels between that era’s unrest and today’s while accepting the award on behalf of the cast.
The win came over two other Netflix releases — “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Da 5 Bloods” — as well as Amazon’s “One Night in Miami” and A24’s “Minari.” Had Lee Isaac Chung’s Korean-American family drama “Minari” won, it would have been the second straight year a film largely not in English won SAG’s top award. Last year, the cast of “Parasite” triumphed, becoming the first cast from a non-English language film to do so.
The SAG Awards are a closely watched Oscar harbinger. Actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and SAG winners often line up with Oscar ones. Last year, “Parasite” went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards, and all of the individual SAG winners — Renee Zellweger, Brad Pitt, Laura Dern, Joaquin Phoenix — won at the Oscars, too.
Those awards this year went to Chadwick Boseman, best male actor for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Viola Davis, best female actor for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Yuh-Jung Youn, best female supporting actor for “Minari.” and Daniel Kaluuya, best male supporting actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Of those, Davis’ win was the most surprising in a category that has often belonged to Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) or Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”). It’s Davis’ fifth individual SAG award.
“Thank you, August, for leaving a legacy for actors of color that we can relish the rest of our lives,” said Davis, referring to playwright August Wilson.
As it has throughout the awards season, best male actor again belonged to Boseman for his final performance. Boseman, who died last August at age 43, had already set a record for most SAG film nominations — four — in a single year. He was also posthumously nominated for his supporting role in “Da 5 Bloods” and shared in the ensemble nominations for both Spike Lee’s film and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
It was the SAG Awards where Boseman gave one of his most memorable speeches. At the guild’s 2019 awards, Boseman spoke on behalf of the “Black Panther” cast when the film won the top award. “We all know what it’s like to be told that there is not a place for you to be featured,” Boseman said then. “Yet you are young, gifted and Black.”
The Academy Awards frontrunner, “Nomadland” missed out on a best-ensemble nomination possibly because its cast is composed of largely non-professional actors. Zhao’s film previously won at the highly predictive Producers Guild Awards, as well as at the Golden Globes. “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” up for best picture at the Oscars and four other awards, could pose a challenge to the frontrunner.
In an interview following the taping of the award for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Langella called the virtual experience much more civilized. “I’m in my bedroom slippers,” he said from New York’s Hudson Valley. “I have no pants on,” added his co-star Michael Keaton.
Eddie Redmayne, who plays Tom Hayden in the film, credited Sorkin and casting director Francine Maisler for assembling such a disparate group of actors — including Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance and Jeremy Strong — into an ensemble.
“It was like a clash of different types of music, whether it was jazz or rock or classical — but all of that coming together under Aaron. He was the conductor, almost,” said Redmayne. “It was a joy day and day out to watch these great and different and varied actors slugging it out.”
In television categories, the ensembles of “Schitt’s Creek” (for comedy series) and “The Crown” (for drama series) added to their string of awards. Other winners included Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”), Gillian Anderson (“The Crown”), Jason Sudeikis (“Ted Lasso”), Jason Bateman (“Ozark”) and Mark Ruffalo (“I Know This Much Is True”).
The awards are typically the highest profile event for the Screen Actors Guild, though the union’s faceoff earlier this year with former President Donald Trump may have drawn more headlines. After the guild prepared to expel Trump (credits include “The Apprentice,” “Home Alone 2”) for his role in the Capitol riot, Trump resigned from SAG-Aftra.
About 12:15 p.m., officers found the man sitting unresponsive in the front passenger seat of a white GMC Envoy in the 3600 block of West 32nd Street, with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
SAN ANTONIO — Tara VanDerveer hugged each of her Stanford players as they climbed the ladder to cut down a piece of the net.
It took 29 years, but VanDerveer and the Cardinal are NCAA women’s basketball champions again.
Haley Jones scored 17 points and Stanford beat Arizona 54-53, giving the Cardinal and their Hall of Fame coach their first national championship in 29 years on Sunday night.
“Getting through all the things we got through, we’re excited to win the COVID championship,” VanDerveer said. “The other one was not quite as close, the last one. But we’re really excited. No one knows the score, no one knows who scored, it’s a national championship and I’m really excited to represent Stanford. It’s a great team. We did not play a great game today, however. But if we can win, not playing as well as we need to, I’m excited.”
It wasn’t a masterpiece by any stretch with both teams struggling to score and missing easy layups and shots, but Stanford did just enough to pull off the win.
Stanford (31-2) built a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter before Arizona (21-6) cut it to 51-50 on star guard Aari McDonald’s 3-pointer.
After a timeout, Jones answered with a three-point play with 2:24 left. That would be Stanford’s last basket of the game. McDonald got the Wildcats with 54-53 with 36.6 seconds left converting three of four free throws.
“I just owe it all to my teammates, they have confidence in me when I don’t have confidence in myself,” said Jones, who was honored as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. “I saw they needed me to come up big and I did.”
The Cardinal, after another timeout couldn’t even get a shot off, giving Arizona one last chance with 6.1 seconds left, but McDonald’s contested shot from the top of the key at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
“I got denied hard. I tried to turn the corner, they sent three at me. I took a tough, contested shot and it didn’t fall,” said McDonald, who fell near midcourt, slumped in disbelief while the Cardinal celebrated.
It’s been quite a journey for VanDerveer and the Cardinal this season. The team was forced on the road for nearly 10 weeks because of the coronavirus, spending 86 days in hotels during this nomadic season.
The team didn’t complain and went about their business and now have another NCAA championship. Along the way the Hall of Fame coach earned her 1,099th career victory to pass Pat Summitt for the most all time in women’s basketball history.
Now the 67-year-old coach has a third national title to go along with the ones she won in 1990 and 1992. That moved her into a tie with Baylor’s Kim Mulkey for third most all time behind Geno Auriemma and Summitt.
VanDerveer had many great teams between titles, including the ones led by Candice Wiggins and the Ogwumike sisters — Nneka and Chiney, but the Cardinal just couldn’t end their season with that elusive win in the title game until Sunday night.
It was the first women’s basketball championship for the Pac-12 since VanDerveer and Stanford won the title in 1992. The last time a team from the conference was in the title game was 2010 when the Cardinal lost to UConn. That game was also played in the Alamodome — the site of every game in this tournament from the Sweet 16 through Sunday’s championship game.
The entire NCAA Tournament was played in the San Antonio area because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Stanford had history on its side, Arizona has been building under coach Adia Barnes, who was the fourth Black woman to lead her team to the championship game, joining Carolyn Peck, Dawn Staley and C. Vivian Stringer. Peck and Staley won titles.
Barnes starred for the Wildcats as a player in the late 90s and came back to her alma mater five years ago. She guided the team to the WNIT title in 2019 and led them to their first NCAA title game ever. This was the team’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2005 — although the Wildcats would have made the NCAAs last season had it not been canceled by the coronavirus.
The Wildcats started the season No. 7 in the poll and moved up to as high as sixth — the best ranking ever in school history –for a few weeks.
McDonald, who followed her coach from Washington as a transfer, has been a huge reason for the team’s success. The 5-foot-6 guard, who is lightning quick, is one of the rare two-way players in the game who can make an impact on both ends of the court.
She struggled against the Cardinal, finishing with 22 points while going 5-for-20 from the field.
McDonald got the Wildcats on the board hitting a 3-pointer, but then Stanford scored the next 12 points. The Cardinal led 16-8 after one quarter.
Arizona got going in the second quarter and took a 21-20 lead before Stanford scored 11 straight points, highlighted by Lexie Hull’s four-point play. The Cardinal led 31-24 at the half. McDonald missed nine of her 11 shots in the first half.
The Wildcats were trying to be only the fourth team to trail by double digits and win a championship.
These teams met twice during the regular season and Stanford rolled past Arizona both times, winning by double digits in each game.
An 18-year-old man was ordered held without bail Sunday after prosecutors alleged he carried out a brazen three-day “crime spree” last month that included stealing a Cook County judge’s vehicle.
Antonio Butler was arrested Friday and charged with felony counts of aggravated vehicular hijacking, armed robbery with a firearm and receiving or possessing a stolen motor vehicle. During Butler’s initial court hearing Sunday, prosecutors noted that some of his alleged crimes remained under investigation, leaving the door open for additional charges.
The alleged crime spree started March 25, when Butler allegedly stole an Audi A4 that was later used in an armed robbery early the following morning in the 3700 block of West 16th Street.
Officers responded to the scene of the robbery but the Audi was able to get away, according to Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy. Murphy said the Audi was then used that day in a pair of thefts at gas stations, a carjacking and an armed robbery, among other alleged crimes.
The following morning, officers responded to a call of a suspicious vehicle in the 3300 block of West 19th Street and found Butler sleeping in the Audi, Murphy said. When Butler disobeyed the officers’ commands, they broke out the car’s windows. Butler then allegedly took off, crashing into two marked Chicago police vehicles during his escape.
Butler later posted a livestream to Facebook that showed him smoking marijuana with a gun in his lap as he bragged about losing the cops, Murphy said. In the video, the Audi’s windows were clearly smashed.
Just before noon on March 27, Butler allegedly used the Audi to pull up alongside the judge’s vehicle at a gas station, Murphy said. He then crouched down, got into the judge’s vehicle and took off, leaving the Audi behind.
Last Friday, Butler was taken into custody after officers identified him as a suspect in the crime spree during a traffic stop. During the stop, the driver of the vehicle took off, striking two police cruisers and two other vehicles before he and Butler were apprehended.
Murphy noted that Butler had an extensive criminal history as a minor and was sentenced to over a year in the Juvenile Department of Corrections in a 2016 gun case. Butler’s public defender described his client as a high school senior and lifelong Chicago resident who works odd jobs.
Judge Susana Ortiz denied him bail and set his next court date for Friday.
Some people go on detox diets. Detox diets are processes and treatments intended to remove toxins and impurities from the body. Most healthcare professionals do not recommend going on these types of diets. Some of the diets require fasting, eating only fruits and vegetables, or using herbs, teas, supplements, or enemas. These diets can cause health issues including vitamin and mineral deficiencies, diarrhea and other stomach problems, and fatigue. Detox diets make alluring promises; however, there are not any regulations for these diets, so it is difficult to discern if they are healthy and safe.
Your body is created to naturally detox. There are healthy activities you can incorporate to improve how your body detoxifies without going on a diet that may cause health problems. The liver plays a vital role in detoxing your body. There are steps you can take to make sure your liver functions at its optimal level. Consume alcohol in moderation. Excessive drinking can damage your liver. Eat a healthy diet of lean proteins, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Limit the consumption of processed foods. The liver has a difficult time processing unhealthy food. Limit the drinking of sugary drinks. There is a belief that these drinks cause the liver to become fatty which hinders its ability to function.
Your kidneys also play an important role in detoxing your body. Drinking water helps your kidneys to function by assisting with the removal of waste. Blood urea nitrogen is a water-soluble waste that passes through the kidneys and is passed through in the urine.
Eat food high in fiber. Fiber helps with removing toxins from the body. Food containing a lot of fiber include dark leafy vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fruit, and beans. Women should consume 25 grams a day of fiber and men should consume 38 grams.
Sometimes we ignore the importance of sleep. According to an article in Healthline, sleep helps to detox the body. When you sleep your body recharges and removes toxins accumulated during the day. Most studies suggest that we should get seven to nine hours of sleep each night.
If you research detoxing, there are numerous diets and products that claim to detox the body. Some promise weight loss and others promise to improve health. Before trying any detox diet or product consider the fact that your body is set up to naturally get rid of toxins. You can implement healthy lifestyle choices to maximize how your body detoxifies. If you decide you want to try a detox diet or product be careful. Do your research to make sure you are not doing something that will be harmful. Before detoxing talk to your healthcare professional to get advice.
I have been interested in preventive medicine since my childhood. In the 70s, my aunt would take me with her to meet with a doctor who emphasized preventive medicine. A lot of the things that doctor discussed then has become standard today.
5:00 p.m. Illinois’ coronavirus positivity rate remains at a two-month high
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Illinois’ coronavirus positivity rate remained at a two-month high Sunday, continuing a troubling upward trend that could lead officials to tighten restrictions on businesses once again.
State health officials reported 2,449 new and probable COVID-19 cases that were detected among 64,116 tests processed in the last day. That kept the state’s seven-day positivity rate for a second day at 3.8%, the highest it’s been since Feb. 2.
In March, that figure, which experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading, dropped to the lowest since summer. In fact, the state’s seven-day positivity rate remained below 3% for nearly six weeks, from Feb. 15 to March 27.
Over the last week, though, that figure has been on a gradual rise.
While the state’s overall positivity rate remains well below the peak levels seen last fall, suburban Cook County and Chicago’s test positivity rates have climbed steadily and are creeping toward the 8% benchmark that could result in a scaling back of recently expanded indoor business capacity limits.
The Chicagoland area’s databases aren’t updated on weekends. But as of Friday, both suburban Cook County and Chicago had a test positivity rate of 5%. For Chicago, that’s up more than a full percentage point from the previous week, when that figure checked in at 3.7% March 26.
Officials warned Saturday that tighter coronavirus restrictions could soon be in store for businesses in suburban Cook County if this upward trend continues.
“We may very well have to clamp down within a matter of days,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, co-lead and senior medical officer for the Cook County Department of Public Health, who partially blamed the uptick on COVID fatigue. “I’m not promising that one way or the other. We need to evaluate exactly what kinds of activities and movements do we think are really pushing this surge.”
3:09 p.m. Christians celebrate second pandemic Easter, some with a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine
VATICAN CITY — Christianity’s most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with the faithful spaced apart in pews and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday marked by pandemic precautions.
From vast Roman Catholic cathedrals to Protestant churches, worshippers followed regulations on the coronavirus. In some European countries, citizens lined up on Easter for their turn to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
In the Lombardy region of Italy, where the pandemic first erupted in the West, a hospital gave a traditional dove-shaped Easter cake symbolizing peace to each person waiting to get vaccinated. Many who came were in their 80s.
A soccer team in Lyon, France, opened its stadium as a vaccination center for the long holiday weekend. Some 9,000 people were expected to receive their shots there over three days as the French government tries to speed up vaccinations amid a fresh outbreak of infections.
In the Holy Land, travel restrictions and quarantine regulations prevented foreign pilgrims from flocking to religious sites in Jerusalem during Holy Week, which culminates in Easter celebrations. Pope Francis lamented that the pandemic has prevented some churchgoers from attending services.
At St. Peter’s Basilica, the 200 or so faithful allowed to attend looked lost in the cavernous cathedral. Normally, thousands would be at the Mass celebrated by Francis, and more than 100,00 would sometimes assemble outside in St. Peter’s Square to receive his Easter blessing afterward.
1:26 p.m. UK to test series of measures to determine if people can return to mass gatherings
LONDON — Britain is planning to test a series of measures including “coronavirus status certifications” over the coming weeks to see if they can allow people to safely return to mass gatherings at sports arenas, nightclubs and concerts.
People attending a range of events this month and in May, including a club night and key FA Cup soccer matches, will need to be tested both before and after. The trials will also gather evidence on how ventilation and different approaches to social distancing could enable large events to go ahead.
Officials are also developing plans to test out COVID-19 passports that are expected to show if a person has received a vaccine, has recently tested negative for the virus, or has some immunity due to having had coronavirus in the previous six months.
The issue of vaccine passports has been a hotly debated topic around the world, including in the United States and Israel. The question is how much governments, employers, venues and other places have a right to know about a person’s virus status. Many disagree over what the right balance is between a person’s right to medical privacy and the collective right of people in groups not to be infected with a dangerous disease by others.
9:05 a.m. From child care to COVID-19, rising job market faces obstacles
WASHINGTON — A surge in hiring in the United States last month — 916,000 added jobs, the most since August — coincides with growing confidence that a blistering pace of job growth will continue as vaccinations increase and federal aid fuels economic growth.
The most optimistic economists even predict that between now and year’s end, the nation could produce as many as 10 million more jobs and restore the labor market to its pre-pandemic level.
Maybe so. Yet even in normal times, it would be hard to regain all those jobs so quickly. And these aren’t normal times.
Many people who’ve been thrown out of the labor force remain fearful of the coronavirus and reluctant to take face-to-face service jobs. Millions of women are still caring for children attending school online — and can’t take jobs because they can’t find or afford child care.
Extended unemployment aid has meant that some employers might have to pay more to attract workers, which they may feel unable to do. And some people will need new skills before they can land a job to replace the one they lost.
While few doubt that the trillions in federal money flowing through the economy will help accelerate hiring, the challenges are sure to endure. Here’s a look at some of them:
The family of a 13-year-old boy who was shot and killed last week by a Chicago cop issued a statement Sunday condemning allegations laid out in a recent alert issued by police leaders warning that factions of the Latin Kings “were instructed by ranking members to shoot at unmarked Chicago police vehicles.”
“This report, if true, is extremely disturbing,” Adeena Weiss Ortiz, the family’s attorney, said in the statement. “Let me be perfectly clear, the Toledo family condemns violence against police and all other members of the community.”
Police officials have declined to comment on the report.
In the family’s statement, they broadly condemned any calls for violence in the wake of the shooting and urged the public “to remain respectful, peaceful, and law abiding in expressing their grief over Adam’s death.”
Adam’s mother, Elizabeth Toledo, added: “No one has anything to gain by inciting violence.
“Adam was a sweet and loving boy,” she said. “He would not want anyone else to be injured or die in his name.”
It wasn’t until two days later that the boy’s mother was notified of his death — and three days later until authorities revealed publicly that he was just 13. After that disclosure, the fatal police shooting quickly drew widespread media attention and prompted some protests.
Police officials previously reported that, on the day of the shooting, officers responded to calls of gunfire and found Adam and a man in an alley to the west of the 2300 block of South Sawyer. An officer then chased Adam, who was shot in the chest and killed in what police described as an “armed confrontation.”
Police later released a photo of a gun allegedly found at the scene near Farragut Career Academy High School.
The city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates all police shootings, first said state law prohibited the release of video footage of the shooting. But Friday, the agency reversed course and announced it would show the “troubling video footage” to the Toledo family before making it public.
Debbie Price, a spokeswoman for the family, said they still hadn’t seen the footage Sunday morning.
Contributing: Frank Main, Sam Kelly, David Struett, Stefano Esposito
All Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Baylor’s Scott Drew could do was smile despite the stress, wish each other well and hope for the best.
It was Dec. 5 in a pandemic season that could fly off the rails at any moment. The game of the year in college basketball — No. 1 Bulldogs vs. No. 2 Bears — had just been canceled, hours before tipoff, because of a positive COVID-19 test. Both coaches still felt the sting of the previous postseason being called off before their teams could take the court as No. 1 seeds. And now this.
Could it really happen — to be that good and that unlucky — two years in a row?
Few and Drew chatted for a while that day at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and came to an agreement: If we can just find our ways to the end of the season, let’s play this game after all. Right here, in Indianapolis, in the Final Four.
How about that?
A game that had to happen is about to happen. It’s Goliath vs. Goliath, great on great, pull up a chair and prepare to jump out of it repeatedly. Gonzaga (31-0) against Baylor (27-2) — this time at Lucas Oil Stadium — should be Monday-night magic from the opening tip.
“They’ve got pros, we’ve got pros,” Bears guard Jared Butler said. “They win a lot of games, we win a lot of games. I think we match up well.”
It’s not often that teams this outstanding come together, not even in national championship games. Duke-Wisconsin in 2015 was big-time. Kansas-Memphis in 2008 comes to mind. Florida-Ohio State in 2007 certainly is up there with any matchup since, including this one. We mustn’t forget Illinois-North Carolina in 2005, either.
But Gonzaga and Butler have simply been different from everybody else from the moment the season started. The Zags — trying to become the first unbeaten champ since Indiana in 1976 — have been the No. 1 team all along, but not for a second have they risen above suspicion that there was an absolute monster out there capable of taking them down.
“We’re going to have to play great,” Few said.
It’ll take all they’ve got. It might even take another heroic shot like the 45-footer Jalen Suggs nailed at the buzzer in overtime to devastate UCLA 93-90. If can’t-miss Johnny Juzang and the 11th-seeded Bruins could push the Zags to the limit, first-team All-American Jared Butler, third-teamer Davion Mitchell and MaCio Teague — the leading members of the best, deepest perimeter group in the country — undoubtedly have the goods.
“It’s going to be a dogfight, man,” Suggs said. “There’s no other way to put it.”
After his team was dominated 78-59 in a Saturday semifinal, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson — who, at 65, has been around the block a time or two — said he’d never seen five guards like Baylor’s, with “no dropoff.” A few hours later, UCLA’s Mick Cronin tried to make sense of his red-hot team playing an almost perfect game against Gonzaga but losing anyway.
“True greatness is giving our best effort,” Cronin said, quoting John Wooden.
And just how good are the Zags? Here’s one way to look at it: Corey Kispert, a first-team All-American and the West Coast Conference player of the year, is their third-best player. That’s a matter of opinion, not fact, but it might be difficult to find anyone paying attention who would disagree. It’s no knock on Kispert, a 6-7 scorer, at all. Point guard Suggs — a freshman sure to be one of the top NBA draft picks in July — and sophomore big man Drew Timme are that terrific.
Few has coached at Gonzaga since 1989, when he was a 26-year-old graduate assistant. A decade later, he took the reins of the program. The only NCAA Tournament the Zags have missed since then was amid the pandemic that shut down the sports world.
“At the end of the year, when I’m standing in a river all by myself somewhere in Montana or Idaho or Alaska, then I’ll kind of laugh by myself about where we were in ’89-90 to now,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”
It’s his time to win it all, which would be a first for Gonzaga.
Or is it? Baylor, too, is going for national title No. 1.
Neither team got its shot a year ago. Butler described the loss of that opportunity as a “tornado hitting our town in Waco, Texas, and just destroying everything.”
Well, look what blew back in — the best matchup college basketball lovers could ask for.
Illinois’ coronavirus positivity rate remains at a two-month high
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Illinois’ coronavirus positivity rate remained at a two-month high Sunday, continuing a troubling upward trend that could lead officials to tighten restrictions on businesses once again.
State health officials reported 2,449 new and probable COVID-19 cases that were detected among 64,116 tests processed in the last day. That kept the state’s seven-day positivity rate for a second day at 3.8%, the highest it’s been since Feb. 2.
In March, that figure, which experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading, dropped to the lowest since summer. In fact, the state’s seven-day positivity rate remained below 3% for nearly six weeks, from Feb. 15 to March 27.
Over the last week, though, that figure has been on a gradual rise.
While the state’s overall positivity rate remains well below the peak levels seen last fall, suburban Cook County and Chicago’s test positivity rates have climbed steadily and are creeping toward the 8% benchmark that could result in a scaling back of recently expanded indoor business capacity limits.
The Chicagoland area’s databases aren’t updated on weekends. But as of Friday, both suburban Cook County and Chicago had a test positivity rate of 5%. For Chicago, that’s up more than a full percentage point from the previous week, when that figure checked in at 3.7% March 26.
Officials warned Saturday that tighter coronavirus restrictions could soon be in store for businesses in suburban Cook County if this upward trend continues.
“We may very well have to clamp down within a matter of days,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, co-lead and senior medical officer for the Cook County Department of Public Health, who partially blamed the uptick on COVID fatigue. “I’m not promising that one way or the other. We need to evaluate exactly what kinds of activities and movements do we think are really pushing this surge.”
3:09 p.m. Christians celebrate second pandemic Easter, some with a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine
VATICAN CITY — Christianity’s most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with the faithful spaced apart in pews and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday marked by pandemic precautions.
From vast Roman Catholic cathedrals to Protestant churches, worshippers followed regulations on the coronavirus. In some European countries, citizens lined up on Easter for their turn to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
In the Lombardy region of Italy, where the pandemic first erupted in the West, a hospital gave a traditional dove-shaped Easter cake symbolizing peace to each person waiting to get vaccinated. Many who came were in their 80s.
A soccer team in Lyon, France, opened its stadium as a vaccination center for the long holiday weekend. Some 9,000 people were expected to receive their shots there over three days as the French government tries to speed up vaccinations amid a fresh outbreak of infections.
In the Holy Land, travel restrictions and quarantine regulations prevented foreign pilgrims from flocking to religious sites in Jerusalem during Holy Week, which culminates in Easter celebrations. Pope Francis lamented that the pandemic has prevented some churchgoers from attending services.
At St. Peter’s Basilica, the 200 or so faithful allowed to attend looked lost in the cavernous cathedral. Normally, thousands would be at the Mass celebrated by Francis, and more than 100,00 would sometimes assemble outside in St. Peter’s Square to receive his Easter blessing afterward.
1:26 p.m. UK to test series of measures to determine if people can return to mass gatherings
LONDON — Britain is planning to test a series of measures including “coronavirus status certifications” over the coming weeks to see if they can allow people to safely return to mass gatherings at sports arenas, nightclubs and concerts.
People attending a range of events this month and in May, including a club night and key FA Cup soccer matches, will need to be tested both before and after. The trials will also gather evidence on how ventilation and different approaches to social distancing could enable large events to go ahead.
Officials are also developing plans to test out COVID-19 passports that are expected to show if a person has received a vaccine, has recently tested negative for the virus, or has some immunity due to having had coronavirus in the previous six months.
The issue of vaccine passports has been a hotly debated topic around the world, including in the United States and Israel. The question is how much governments, employers, venues and other places have a right to know about a person’s virus status. Many disagree over what the right balance is between a person’s right to medical privacy and the collective right of people in groups not to be infected with a dangerous disease by others.
9:05 a.m. From child care to COVID-19, rising job market faces obstacles
WASHINGTON — A surge in hiring in the United States last month — 916,000 added jobs, the most since August — coincides with growing confidence that a blistering pace of job growth will continue as vaccinations increase and federal aid fuels economic growth.
The most optimistic economists even predict that between now and year’s end, the nation could produce as many as 10 million more jobs and restore the labor market to its pre-pandemic level.
Maybe so. Yet even in normal times, it would be hard to regain all those jobs so quickly. And these aren’t normal times.
Many people who’ve been thrown out of the labor force remain fearful of the coronavirus and reluctant to take face-to-face service jobs. Millions of women are still caring for children attending school online — and can’t take jobs because they can’t find or afford child care.
Extended unemployment aid has meant that some employers might have to pay more to attract workers, which they may feel unable to do. And some people will need new skills before they can land a job to replace the one they lost.
While few doubt that the trillions in federal money flowing through the economy will help accelerate hiring, the challenges are sure to endure. Here’s a look at some of them:
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Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times